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The importance of sports as a hook for admission to highly selective colleges

by Grace

…Do not underestimate the importance of sports as a hook for acceptance to highly selective colleges.

The following quote is from a New York Times article about the Ivy League’s new policies that have substantially enhanced financial aid for all admitted students, making it easier to recruit elite athletes.

A recruited Ivy League athlete must have the academic credentials to survive the stringent and highly selective admissions process at each institution. Coaches have little sway in the admissions process, although they do provide a list of potential athletes to admissions officials. Across the league, about 13 percent of each university’s incoming class is composed of athletes chosen from coaches’ lists.

Essentially, coaches are selecting 13% of the class. Since most athletes are admitted in the early rounds of the process, the figures from this chart serve to make the significance of this hook even more compelling — 23% admit rate for the early rounds and 9% admit rate for regular decision.

But at Chicago, as at most of the nation’s elite universities, a football player has the advantage of a big pair of cleats in the door. “Admissions always tells us, ‘There are 500 kids with perfect test scores we turned away,’ ” Maloney said. “But they also want kids who bring something else to the table — sculptors and actors and, yes, football players.”

You need the other credentials, but playing football can be the hook that gets you in the door of that elite university.

The 23% refers to the early admit rate for everyone. But because athletes who catch the schools’ attention are typically offered “likely letters”, I would presume their admit rate is close to 100% and boosts that early admissions percentage.

I’m not very knowledgeable about the signing deadline, but here’s an article that explains the Harvard recruiting process.

The Ivy League has minimal rules governing how its member institutions can utilize the likely letter, according to Harris. Still, the rules that exist are clear. While coaches may inquire as to a student’s level of interest, they cannot require a commitment or suggest that the applicant’s admission be contingent upon a commitment, according to the league’s website.